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National Old Stuff Day – Don’t get bitten by the future!

So, there’s a National Old Stuff Day! This is now the most important day of my year. This is my Christmas. Friends and family can now look forward to gifts of classic Godzilla tapes and Pez dispensers every March 2nd, followed by the now traditional (and mandatory) feast of Turkey Twizzlers and Crystal Pepsi. I love old stuff. My nostalgia knows no bounds.

This has led, as you can imagine, to some esoteric hobbies. Flea market and thrift store hopping is my jam. I own more Transformers and Game Boy games than any adult should. I even got excited to sell some of my collection after moving because I get to hunt them down again, which probably isn’t normal. But hey, everyone needs hobbies. Nothing like a bit of low-level obsession to keep you busy.

Everyone’s nostalgic for something. It can be genuinely intoxicating, looking back on a time, a place or in my case toys. It’s something everyone finds some good vibes in. On the flip side though, some people don’t handle their nostalgia in the best way, and it can be a bit of a problem. Bad vibes.

There is the pervasive (and misguided) thought that runs through some parts of society that “good then = bad now”. The good ol’ fashioned “They don’t make ‘em like they used to!” mentality, and it’s hard not to sympathise with their point. Take cars, for example. You might hear about a lot of older models being “built like tanks” and “indestructible” and there’s truth to that! Those machines could take a beating, and it’s impressive. Top Gear dropped an old pickup off a building and drove it away, and it was cool.

Modern cars are built with lightweight aluminium and complicated electronics, instead of tougher steel and mechanical knowhow. Can’t drop a modern truck off a building and drive it away. But – and bear with me here – this is very deliberate, and it’s a good thing!
An old car could maybe survive a nasty crash and be totally salvageable, it’s true. Your modern car, with its crumple zones and lightweight frame, will almost definitely not come away from that intact. But YOU will! Those crumple zones absorb the energy from the smash, meaning they’re not transferred into you. The lightweight materials, on top of making the vehicle lighter and more efficient, are less likely to crack and shatter into shrapnel AND are much easier for emergency services to cut through if necessary. The car won’t live, but it’s driver will. The old car, on the other hand, may well be relatively intact – but it’ll have a puddle of human soup instead of a driver, all that impact force directed straight into the squishy organic thing unlucky enough to be sitting in it. Car design changed because it needed to and pining for a simpler time is missing the point.

What I’m trying to say here, gratuitous imagery aside, is that nostalgia handled badly can make people resistant to change and innovation, even when that change is in their best interests. In the workplace it can lead to bad practices being maintained dangerously by people not up to date on their tech knowledge. It can lead to loss of revenue to more flexible competitors who have evolved with the times. It can even lead to discriminatory recruitment practices, with some business and organisations hiring using completely outdated criteria, refusing perfectly qualified candidates based on race, gender or sexuality; or even only recruiting out of specific universities for the sake of “tradition”. Think of where these businesses could be if they grew in step with the rest of the world!

We at Full Picture believe fully in evolving with the times. We recruit in the modern way, utilising advances in technology and media to our full advantage and ensuring every candidate we send your way is perfect for the role, even (and sometimes especially) if they’re not your “traditional” pick!

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